Joe Root Avoids Sandpapergate Controversy Amid Khawaja's Claims
Joe Root has no interest in reopening old wounds or joining a pile-on. Not even when an Ashes rival lights the fuse.
As Usman Khawaja’s autobiography ‘Sabr’ sends fresh shockwaves through Australian cricket, England’s former Test captain has stepped carefully around the latest chapter of the Sandpapergate saga, refusing to brand ball-tampering as widespread across the international game at the time.
Root, currently in Australia for a three-match ODI series starting in Perth on Friday, was asked directly whether he believed the practice had been rife eight years ago.
“I can only speak from my own experiences, that's not how I feel,” he replied, drawing a clear line between his England dressing room and the storm now circling Australia.
Khawaja’s claims reignite Sandpapergate
Khawaja’s book has dragged one of cricket’s most infamous scandals back into the spotlight.
The former Australia batter alleges that every member of the side knew about the plan to alter the condition of the ball during the 2018 Cape Town Test against South Africa. That match produced the defining image of Sandpapergate: Cameron Bancroft caught on camera working on the ball with sandpaper.
Bancroft received a nine-month ban. Then-captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner, widely viewed as the driving force behind the plot, were suspended for a year.
Khawaja goes further. In ‘Sabr’, he claims Australia had experimented with lifting the seam on the ball during the 2017-18 Ashes on home soil, a series they won 4-0 under Smith’s captaincy.
The ECB declined to comment when approached.
Root, asked about those specific Ashes allegations, wanted no part in adding fuel.
“We obviously have no idea (about it),” he said. “It's all speculation. I wasn't in that dressing room. I don't know what went on. I don't want to speculate, as I said. My focus is with this team right now and what we've got coming up.”
For Root, the priority is the white-ball series. For Australia, the questions are only just beginning.
Marsh in the firing line
Khawaja is understood to have cancelled further promotional interviews after an awkward exchange on Australian broadcaster ABC’s 7.30 programme, but his words are still doing the rounds.
Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s white-ball captain for the England series, will not be able to sidestep them so easily.
Marsh played in that infamous Cape Town Test. When he faces the media on Thursday, he will face a barrage over what he knew then and what he makes of Khawaja’s version of events now.
The bowlers who have long been central to the Sandpapergate debate will not be there to share the burden. Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood are all missing from the ODI and T20 squads to face England.
Those four issued a joint statement in 2021 denying any prior knowledge of the use of sandpaper. Starc, speaking again on Tuesday, repeated that he had no awareness of the plot before it unfolded on the field.
Cummins, now Australia’s Test captain, addressed Khawaja’s book during the recent tour of South Africa, where Australia slipped to a 2-1 series defeat in their first Tests there since Sandpapergate.
“He just basically gave me the heads-up that he's doing a book, and yeah, as always, no worries. Tell your story. It's fine,” Cummins told reporters, playing down any sense of internal friction.
No new probe, same old scars
Despite the fresh allegations, Cricket Australia has no intention of reopening the case.
Chief executive Todd Greenberg, who was not in charge at the time of the original scandal, has made it clear there is “no compelling reason” to launch a new investigation.
The governing body may be keen to move on. The sport, less so. Every new revelation, every fresh claim, drags Sandpapergate back into the conversation, especially when an Ashes rival tours the country.
England’s schedule is locked in: early starts for UK viewers, ODIs at 3.30am and T20s at 8.15am. Root and his team will talk about lengths, match-ups and batting orders.
Australia’s players, at least for a few more days, will still be talking about sandpaper, seam-lifting and a scandal that refuses to fade.
